Students of the Fox
by teslaman
Summary: Shinji is the dead last of the Academy, even though his physical skills are amazing. Now with his new team and his strange sensei, he will show Konoha how good of a shinobi he is. OC story with the main characters thrown in as adults.
1. Chapter 1

**Yo, this is my first FanFic. Please review if you want, I can guarantee that updates will be sporadic. Oh, and Disclaimer, I do not in any way, shape or form own Naruto. That honor belongs to kishimoto-sama.**

"SHINJI! IKO! SHUT UP"

"Y-Yes Iruka-sensei"

Shinji Kiran and his best friend/rival Iko Bakota both slouched in their seats. They had just been having their age old argument over whether blunt or sharp weapons were better. Iko was a slim youth, with mid length blonde hair, and always wore a black sleeveless vest and white shorts, with an assortment of kunai, shurikan and weapon scrolls on his body. Shinji on the other hand had short spike brown hair, a more muscular build, and wore a long blue jacket with white stripes on the sleeves with blue pants. He also constantly had his green scarf wrapped around his neck and his bo staff slung over his shoulder.

"Okay, now that the two baka's in the back have stopped bickering, I will remind you that the academy exams are tomorrow. Passing will mean that you will achieve the rank of genin and be assigned a team and jonin sensei. Now I need not stress how important this is to you all. There will be both a written and practical exam, so I would suggest going home and do some last minute practice and studying. Okay, class dismissed."

At once a blue blur was seen flying through the door of the classroom. If there was one thing that Shinji could boast about, it was his speed. There wasn't another academy student who could beat him in a race. After leaving the school, Shinji bee-lined for his favorite restaurant, Ichiraku Ramen. As he sat there digging into his first bowl of ramen, his friends walked up. First to enter was Iko, followed by Shikamori Nara. Shikamori was a small kid, with short cropped brown hair and a bored expression on his face. He wore a plain white t-shirt and brown shorts with a kunai holster on the side. After him came Aishira Inuzuka. Aishira was the complete opposite of his lethargic companion, full of energy and always moving. He had medium length black hair and the red fang tattoos on his cheeks like all the others in his clan. He also wore a black long sleeve jacket and black pants. By his side was his fairly large gray dog fukamaru.

"You couldn't have waited for the rest of us, could you Shinji?" droned Shikamori. "You know how I get after class, I was starving" he replied, with mouth full of ramen. His friends sat down beside him and made their orders. By the time they got their food he was already ordering his 3rd bowl. "Ive got no idea where he puts it all." chuckled Teuchi. After finishing their food (with Shinji having ate 4 bowls of ramen) the 4 boys went off in separate ways to their homes.

When Shinji opened the door to his apartment he was immediately met with a frying pan to the face. "WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN!" yelled his sister Shina. "Uh...Uh…. I was at Ichiraku with the guys" stammered the dazed Shinji. "You were supposed to be home an HOUR AGO! I made dinner and now its all cold!" said his fuming sister. "Well, thanks anyway, I've got to go practice n..OW!" Shina had just nailed him with a pot. Shinji quickly performed a series of hand signs and substituted himself for his pillow. "Well, my substitution jutsu is pretty good. If only my transformations worked as great. Ah well, better start practicing then."

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Shinji threw a kunai at his alarm clock, piercing the electronic face and breaking another in a long line of clocks.

"Ah damn it. Shouldn't have done that," he sleepily mumbled, "now Shina's gonna get on to me for another broken clock." The young shinobi rolled out of bed and started to get dressed. He had been up late the previous night practicing his transformation jutsu.

The boy peaked his head out of his room into the hallway. He could hear his sister working in the kitchen. He started to creep into the hall. After substituting to his room he had quickly locked his door so his sister couldn't get at him, but he was still afraid of what she would do to him. As he entered the kitchen he saw that she had her back turned to him. As he reached for a piece of toast on the counter a knife suddenly logged itself right beside his hand! He jerked away with a shocked look on his face while Shina simply smiled. "Never," she said sweetly, but with unrestrained killing intent "use your jutsu to escape punishment again, okay?" She cocked her head to the side and shinji hastily nodded to reassure her that the point was understood. "Now hurry up and eat, you've got a big day today"

"Yeah, it won't be a problem, I spent most of the night practicing my henge no jutsu so I should pass no problem."

"You better, or else your getting my special kitchen technique."

Shinji shuddered at the thought, remembering the last time he had been on the receiving end of one of her full blown attacks.

"I think that's my cue to split." And before his sister could say a word Shinji was out the door, grabbing his bo staff from its stand by the doorway.

"First stop Academy, Next one HOKAGE!" he shouted to the world.


	2. Chapter 2

**Okay, so no reviews last time. Eh, im cool with that, but really tell me how you feel. I know my first chapter didn't have a lot of commentary from me the author, but ill work on that. Anyway, here is chapter two, and no, I don't own naruto.**

**(I noticed some mistakes in the original, so being a true writer, I fixed them, enjoy!)**

Shinji burst into the classroom just as Iruka was taking roll.

"Well, we know that Shinji's here." Iruka said

"Sorry Iruka-sensei." Stammered Shinji

"Its fine, just go and take your seat."

As Shinji sat down he saw Aishira smirking. Shikamori was at his normal seat by the window staring at the sky, while Iko had his eyes trained on Rin Hatake. Shinji couldn't understand his friends interest in the girl. Sure she was cute, but the white hair was weird in his opinion and she was always late. Plus she always wore this grey combat armor and gave off a feeling of superiority that made him gag. Shinji for his part liked Yano Sarutobi. She had long black hair, deep brown eyes, and always wore a simple brown dress. She was also really shy, which didn't make sense as she was related to Konoha's undisputed loudest ninja.

Iruka's voice cut through his thoughts. "Alright, im about to pass out the written exam, you will have one hour."

_Alright, ive been studying ill be able to do this_ the young shinobi thought.

The written exam consisted of basic tactics, survival skills, history and shinobi theory. While he knew he didn't ace the exam, he was at least confident he passed.

Next came the jutsu exam. One by one they were called out of the room to perform the three basic shinobi skills they would need in the real world. When Shinji's name was called he walked out of the room down the hall, and into a smaller office.

"Allright Shinji, first use the substitution." Said Iruka, immediately throwing a pencil at him. Upon hitting Shinji, he disappeared in a puff of smoke only to be replaced by a text book.

"Good, now show how many bunshin you can create." Performing the necessary handsigns three copies of Shinji puffed beside him.

"Very good, now, hardest for last. I want you to transform into me."

_I CAN DO THIS!_ He thought as he yelled "TRANSFORM!" As the smoke cleared there appeared…. a perfect copy of Iruka!

"Congratulations Shinji, you have officially passed the genin exam!" Iruka said with a smile.

"YAHOOOOO!"

"Okay, Okay, calm down, here's your forehead protector. Your to meet here in two days to be assigned your jonin sensei, alright?"

"You bet Iruka-sensei!" Shinji said with a smile.

Shinji busted out of the office and ran to the front door. Standing there was Aishira and Iko, as Shikamori had yet to be called. Both of them also had protectors but they had theirs in different places. Where as Shinji had immediately tied his to his head, Iko had his wrapped around the top of his left arm and Aishira had his hanging around his neck.

Both had smiles on there face as Shinji walked out.

"Nice job man." Aishira barked, as he had a rough sounding voiced. Fukamaru joined his partner with a booming bark of his own.

"Hey, should we wait for Mori or…." "NO" both his friends said at once. "Fine" Shinji said with a defeated look.

20 minutes later Shikamori strolled out of the Academy with his protector tied around his waist.

"Finally" shinji exclaimed. "Wow, you guys actually got him to wait for me." Shikamori said, mildly surprised.

"I simply said I would treat if he waited." Iko said. " You may regret that promise Iko." Shikamori said.

"Off to Ichiraku's!" and with that Shinji sped off.

*Huh* sighed his friends collectively and ran off to join him.

"SHINA, I DID IT, I PASSED" shouted Shinji as he burst into the apartment.

"DON'T YELL IN THE HOUSE BAKA!" snapped Shina

"YOU YELLING TOO!" He screamed back

"DON'T TALK BACK!" she yelled followed by a smack with her frying pan.

"OWWW!"

While he was still recoiling from the hit, his sister pulled him into a hug. "Im so proud of you. Mom and Dad would be too."

The grin fell from Shinji's face. "I miss them."

"Me too," she said softly, but shaking off her saddness "but they wouldn't want us moping around right now, we should be celebrating. How about we go to Ichiraku's?"

"Naw, Iko treated us after the test. He says I own him 300 yen cause I ate five more bowls than anyone else."

Shina looked at her brother with a mix of disbelief and amusement. _He definitely takes after mom._

"Okay, how about barbecue then?"

"YOSHHH" her brother exclaimed and sped out the door.

"YOU ONLY GET TWO SERVINGS!" yelled Shina as she followed the energetic boy.

Two days had passed since the new genin had graduated. They now sat in their classroom waiting for their teacher to give them their new teams.

Shinji sat in his normal seat and was practically bursting with excitement. Just when he didn't think he could take it anymore Iruka-sensei walked in.

"Once again I would like to extend my congratulation to all of you. You will all make excellent shinobi in the coming years. Now, lets get on to the team assignments. "

After the first few names had been called Shinji fell into a stupor. He only came out once again when he heard "Alright, team 7 will be made up of Shinji Kiran, Rin Hatake and Natiro Kitsune."

Shinji's face fell. Not a single one of his friends had made it on to his team. No, he got stuck with the ice princess Rin and that smug bastard Natiro. Natiro was a well built guy from the Kitsune clan, the only clan in the village that specialized in genjutsu. The thing with Natiro was that not only did he excel with genjutsu but he was a prodigy when it came to taijutsu and ninjutsu as well. He had mid length purple hair like the rest of his clan, gray eyes, and wore a grey shirt with purple pants that had gray stripes down the sides.

"Why the hell was I put with the teme and ice princess?" shouted the enraged Shinji.

"Because baka, while you practical score was good, you scored the lowest out of the class in the written portion." Stated Iruka calmly.

Shinji sank into his desk as the majority of the class laughed except for his friends and Yano, which cheered him up slightly.

"Now if I can get back to the team set ups, Team 8 will consist of Yano Sarutobi, Aishira Inuzuka, and Sayuri Miro. Finally Team 9 will be made of Hiyori Hyuga, Shikamori Nara, and Iko Bakota." And with that Shinji stopped listening.

_Well Shira's lucky cause he's got Yano-chan on his team, and Iko and Mori both know each other's moves so they can watch each other's back. Im SCREWED!_

"Okay, now you are to wait in here until your jonin senseis come to pick you up."

Shikamori's and Iko's team was the first to be claimed by a strangely energetic man who kept shouting about the power of youth.

Aishira's sensei came much later, muttering how troublesome teaching was going to be, though he smiled when he saw Yano and she looked much happier as well.

Finally Shinji was left sitting there with Natiro and Rin, with no one saying a sound. Two hours had gone by since the last team left and Shinji had fallen into a daze. All of a sudden out of nowhere they all heard a simple "Yo". Standing in the window was a blond man in a black and orange jumpsuit. His hair was spikey and would have covered his forehead if not for the leaf protector holding it back.

"Im you guys jonin sensei. Meet me on the roof in 5 minutes." And with that he flickered away.

5 minutes later the genin were sitting in front of their teacher with mixed feelings. Rin was analyzing him and looking for and weaknesses. Natrio was trying to figure out how an idiot like him made jonin. Shinji was still fuming about the lateness.

"Allright, well my first impression of you guys is you still have a long way to go. We should start off with introductions. Names, likes, dislikes dreams. Ill go first. Well, My name is Naruto Uzumaki, my likes are ramen and my wife. My dislikes are too many too name now, as for my dream, well ill keep that a secret."

Shinji took this as his chance "My name is Shinji Kiran, my likes are Ichirakus's and training, my dislikes are arrogant people, late people, and my sisters special kitchen technique. My dream is to become Hokage."

(Naruto)_ Huh, reminds me of me, this kid might just have some promise._

"How about you purple?" asked the blond jonin

"My names Natiro Kistune, my likes are genjutsu, my dislikes are a lot. As for my dream, I don't have one. I do have an ambition, and that is to become the ruler of my clan and make us the strongest clan in the village." He stated in a monotone voice.

(Naruto) _Scary kid, gonna have to work on that attitude if were gonna succeed in missions._

Rin did not wait for an invitation. "My name is Rin Hatake, my likes are kenjutsu, my dislikes are useless people," throwing a glare at Shinji, "My dream is to become the strongest Kunoichi ever."

(Naruto) _At least she's not a fan girl like half of them are in the academy, this might be a good team._

"Alright then, well tomorrow we are gonna have a test to determine if you guys stay genin. And before you start whining the academy test was just to weed out the hopeless cases. This will determine if you guys got what It takes to become true shinobi. And just so you know, the test has a 66% fail rate, which means only three teams from your year will become shinobi. Meet me at Training ground 5 tomorrow at seven o'clock. Oh, and don't eat breakfast unless you want to taste it again. Well, good night. " and with that, he disappeared, leaving three shocked 12 year olds to ponder in silence.

**Wow, that took a lot longer than I thought It would. Wanted to leave on a cliff hanger. Yes, naruto acts sort of like Kakashi, but I mean come on, Kakashi is an awesome role model to have. And yes, Kakashi did get married. Not to Anko, but a nice civilian woman. Anyone who is mad about that, sorry, but Anko and Kakashi just don't make a good couple in my opinion. Anyway, please review, as It might motivate me to update regularly, tho I wont make promises.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Once again no reviews. I saddens me. Haven't updated cause I just got AC3, and only reason im writing now is cause I needed a break from ripping Templars in half. :) Anyway, now we get to see how Naruto's team holds up to the bell test. Should be fun. **

**And no, I have no ownage of Naruto, cause if I did, It would not be as awesome, anyway, ON TO BATTLE!**

Shinji woke up to his new alarm clock beeping in his ear. His sister had bought him a new one after lecturing for an hour that they weren't made of money and he couldn't destroy this one, or he would pay. The fact that it was a vague threat scared Shinji more than if she had spelled the consequences. Still, he did almost throw a kunai before remembering the conversation.

"Man, this is too early." He mumbled sleepily.

He slowly got dressed and tiptoed his way to the kitchen. His sister had asked him to be quiet in the morning, which ment if woke her up, she would kill him. Shina wasn't a morning person. He almost made himself a bowl of cereal before remembering his sensei's advice. Scowling at both his teacher and his empty stomach, he made his way out of the door. Deciding to warm up before the test he punched into his top speed, completely disappearing from a normal persons perspective.

He arrived at the training ground with 20 minutes to spare, so he set his staff on to the side of a tree and decided to set up a few traps from his backpack. Contrary to the popular belief in the academy, he wasn't an idiot. He just wasn't good at the theoretical and planning aspects of being a shinobi. All that history and chakra theory just went right through his head. Practical lessons he excelled in. He was the fastest in the Academy, and his taijutsu and field skill scores were among the highest. So it was second nature to him to set up traps. They were mostly simple tripwires connected to kunai launchers, a swinging log, a few snares, and one net. He was just placing the net in the upper branches of a tree when he saw Natiro and Rin approach.

Trying to bridge the gap between the three of them, Shinji dropped out of the tree and approached his teammates. "Morning guys" he said cheerfully. Once he got warmed up and in the field, he was as happy as he could be. Natiro just scowled at him while Rin said "Shut up baka, its too early."

Shinji just frowned. _What made me think they would like me better now than in the academy? This is why I didn't want to be on a team with either of them._

"Well, I thought you guys should know, I set up a few traps around the area, just in case we need to use them." Said Shinji, still trying to forge some type of comraderie.

"Why the hell would we need traps, its just a test." Spat Rin.

"I don't know, It could be a survival test, or a combat test, to see our skills. We might need them to buy us some time." Responded Shinji.

After that exchange to the genin fell to silence. After a few hours they started to get hungry. It was nearly 11 o'clock when suddenly….

"Yo" came a voice from behind them.

All three spun around to see their sensei in the same crouched position on top of a stump a few yards from where they had been sitting.

"YOUR LATE AGAIN!" Yelled Shinji.

Their sensei simply rubbed the back of his head

"This little kid was lost so I helped him find his parents." He lied

"THAT'S BULLSHIT!" Shinji yelled again.

"SHUT UP BAKA!" yelled Rin and bashed him on the head.

"Okay, now that the excitement is over, let me tell you your test" said Naruto. He then pulled out two ordinary looking bells. "All you have to do is take these bells from me and you pass, simple as that."

Natiro then spoke up "But sensei, there's only two bells and there's three of us."

"Good observation, yeah, only two of you will pass, the other one will be sent back to the academy."

They all stood shocked at this statement.

"Oh, and one more thing, If you don't get a bell by 12, you don't get to eat lunch, and ill tie you to a tree and make you watch me eat."

They sweatdropped at this.

_So that's why he told us not to eat breakfast_. Thought Rin.

"Okay, ready, set, GO!"

Upon his command they all shot off to different hiding places.

(Naruto) _Hmmm… they all have mastered the basics of hiding. Their pretty good. Though I can still sense them, Natiro is in the tree by the river, Rin's over in that bush, and Shinji…. Oh damn, its like im watching myself._

Shinji stood in front of his sensei with his bo staff slung across his neck.

"There's really no point in hiding cause you could sense us anyway, couldn't you sensei?" said Shinji calmly.

"Your not as dumb as you look, well, come at me then." Replied Naruto.

Shinji dashed foreward twirling his staff with his left had. When he was within ten feet of Naruto he suddenly vanished. Naruto was taken back, and only barely blocked the staff that swung around from behind him. "How the hell do you know the body flicker?" he said as he flipped away.

"I always liked running, just got fast enough that I learned It on my own." And with that he vanished again.

"Time to get serious." Said Naruto and vanished as well

Suddenly there was a flash in the middle of the field, and two indistinct forms ricocheted away from the collision. Rin and Natiro just stood shocked in their hiding places. The same thought went through both their heads. _This can't be the dead last Shinji._

This exchange went on for ten minutes, with neither of the other genin being able to see what was happening. Then the two fighters both flickered back into view. Shinji looked exhausted while Naruto didn't even look winded. _This can't be right. Im fighting at full strength and I didn't land a single hit. How the hell are we supposed to take on a Jonin by ourselves. _An idea flashed in Shinjis head. _BY OURSELVES! How could I not have seen it before? TEAMWORK! That's the answer._

He screamed out "NATIRO! RIN! WE HAVE TO WORK TOGETHER!" Both let the message sink in. A jonin versus three genin. Two bells. Sowing dis-unity by saying that one would be sent back. Natiro was the first to add up the facts. He jumped out of his tree while performing a series of handsigns. "Illusion Art: Forest of 1000 Pillars" Naruto suddenly was surround by a endless expanse of giant white pillars. _Damn it, genjutsu, I still have trouble with this stuff._ He started to build up his chakra to dispel the illusion when he was hit in the stomach by something hard. He bounded away and released a burst of chakra dispelling the illusion. Standing in front of him was Rin Hatake. While he was under the genjutsu she had realized the purpose of the test and dived straight towards her sensei and delivered a hard punch to his stomach. "THAT WAS FOR MAKING US WAIT!" she shouted at the winded jonin.

All three genin then lined up and faced down their opponent. "That's more like it. Well what are you waiting for, come at me." He taunted.

Rin charged in first bringing out the tanto she kept on her back. She swiped at Naruto's legs but he jumped into the air to avoid it. Just then Shinji appeared and swung his staff. Naruto had just enough time to bring his arms up to block the attack, and was knocked down to the ground. He landed on his hands and sprung onto his feet, just in time to see three shurikan flying at him. He swiftly brought out his kunai and deflected the shurikan then sprinted foreward to attack Natiro (who had thrown them). The young ninja held his ground as his sensei closed the distance. When Naruto was right up on him he smiled and said "gotcha". Naruto was confused when he felt his leg swing up. Natiro had remember from earlier when Shinji had shown them where his traps were, and positioned himself right in front of a noose as the other two distracted the older shinobi. Naruto had been too preoccupied with his students to notice the trap, and as he hung upside down Natiro grabbed the bells from his waist.

All of a sudden Naruto disappeard in a cloud of smoke and reappeared behind his students. "Well done, Well done indeed. Im very proud of you all. You're the first team ive had that grasped the meaning of the test, even if one of your teammates had to give you a little push. You all pass!" going into a good guy pose, which kind of creeped out Rin.

"YAHOOOOO!" shouted the ecstatic Shinji.

Natiro simply smirked, while Rin was trying to keep from bursting out like Shinji.

"Starting now we are officially Team 7. We'll meet back up here tomorrow at 8 to start your training in more advance techniques and teamwork. We'll also be taking missions come next week. Go home and celebrate, you deserve it. I gotta go and report to the Hokage. See ya'll tomorrow." And with that he was gone.

"WE DID IT!" shouted Shinji.

"Your one loud baka aren't you?" remarked Rin.

"I can't help it." He chuckled

"Hey, you guys were awesome, what was that genjutsu you used again Natiro?"

" Its called Illusino Art: Forest of 1000 Pillars, its actually pretty low level for me," He said. "but what about you, you were moving just as fast as Naruto sensei. How did you do that?"

"Its called the body flicker technique. I finally learned it last year. It takes a lot of chakra though, so I can only use it for short periods, as I don't have the control to modulate it, or the reserves to keep it up. I actually think Naruto sensei was going easy on me. It felt like he was holding back."

"Either way we passed," chimed in Rin, "I think we should take Naruto sensei's advice and celebrate. How bout some lunch?"

At the mention of food all of their stomachs growled.

"Agreed" said the two boys in unison, and so they left the training grounds, with Rin and Naruto agreeing over whether they should get ramen or barbecue, with Natiro just walking behind them, smiling over his new teammates.

Hokage Mansion-

Tsunade sat in her chair looking over the piles of paperwork she had to do. _One of these days im finally going to retire._ she thought to herself.

"The jonin who had teams pass are here to report my lady." Said her ever constant aide Shizune.

"Let them in" said Tsunade. _Anything to distract me from this paperwork._ First walked in Shikamaru Nara. He still had the same pineapple hair style, but with a goatee and mustache to go along with it. He had also picked up his late sensei's habit of smoking after the war, and currently had an unlit cigarrete in his mouth. Next came in Rock Lee. He still wore the green tights, but he had let his hair grow so he now had a long braid that went down behind his head to the middle of his back. Finally came in Naruto, who had changed the least of the 3, though his orange and black jumpsuit was more form fitting now, and made him more maneuverable.

"Report"

"Team 7, of Natiro Kitsune, Rin Hatake, and Shinji Kiran, had passed." Stated Naruto

"Team 8, of Yano Sarutobi, Aishira Inuzuka, and Sayuri Miro, passed, but it was troublesome" droned Shikamaru

"THE YOUTHFUL TEAM OF HIYORI HYUGA, SHIKAMORI NARA, AND IKO BAKOTA PASSED IN A MOST SPECTACULAR DISPLAY OF YOUTH!" yelled Lee

"Thank you all. Im going to want regular reports on the progress of you teams. You are dismissed"

As they went to leave Tsunade said "Naruto, can you wait a moment?"

"Sure granny, whats up?"

"There's something you need to know about your team." She said.

"And that would be?" said Naruto, now interested.

"One of your students, Shinji, he's my grandson."

**How do you like that. Quite a twist ain't it. Well a cliff hanger is always good, and I promise to explain everything next chapter. With Natiro, I know I described him as smug, but that's just how Shinji sees him as Natiro was always to focused on his studies to pay much attention to anyone. As for Rin's lack of a cool behavior, late people really piss her off, as you can guess. Once again PLEASE REVIEW. I actually do want to know what you think, even if you hated it. (Please don't hate it, I don't think my heart could take it) Anyhoo, Until next time.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Wassup. I FINALLY GOT A REVIEW! And it was pretty good too, shout out to FuturisticData for giving me some good advice. To the rest of you, REVIEW! It actually does help. A little house keeping first of all, after taking it into consideration, I will be changing Natiro's clan from the Kitsune, back to the Kurama. It was like that in my rough drafts, but I changed it thinking it would sound better. **

**Now, for the moment you have all been waiting for…. Drumroll please….. NEW CHAPTER!**

"YOUR WHAT!" Yelled the shocked Naruto.

"Yes, my grandson, which makes him part of the Senju bloodline. "calmly replied Tsunade.

"I didn't even know that you had a kid, much less a grandson." Naruto said.

"Most people don't. The only ones who ever knew were Jiraiya, the Third, and Shizune. My daughter was named Mito after my grandmother. She was Dan's daughter, I didn't even know that I was pregnant until after he died. "she said Sadly, " When she was born I was overwhelmed, I had hidden away from the village to avoid any questions, Sarutobi-sensei said I was on a extended mission. She was so beautiful, but I didn't know how to raise a child, and we were still at war, I would be away for long weeks or months on missions, or I might even die. So I did what I thought was best for her, I gave her to a loving civilian family."

"I'm so sorry granny Tsunade." Said Naruto

"You don't need to apologize, it was my choice. It was also one of the reasons I left the village, I couldn't bear to see her grow up and me not be a part. When I returned to the village I looked her up, apparently she had just married a Chunin by the name of Shiroji Kiran and was expecting her first child. I thought about telling her the truth, but It would destroy her world. So I have lived the last 16 years watching my grandchildren grow up and not know me."

"You talk as if she died." Observed Naruto.

"She did, last year, it was a disease I have never seen before, it spread throughout her body, completely destroying her cells. I don't even think she knew she had it until the doctors told her the diagnosis. When I had heard about this from Shizune I searched through every file and book I had trying to find a cure. According to the information I had found if we had caught the disease early on we might have been able to save her, but at that stage it was nearly impossible. Since their father died a few years ago on a mission, I am the only family they have left." Tsunade said.

"THEN WHY DON'T YOU TELL THEM WHO YOU ARE!" shouted a now furious Naruto. He could understand leaving your child with a family that would love them, but abandoning your grandchildren to fend for themselves, he could not!

"What do you think I've been doing?" stated Tsunade icily, "For the better part of a year now I have been working on the legalities on proving that I am related to them so I can take custody. The civilian council is ridiculously stubborn. They have been told that the children have no idea that I am their grandmother, which seems to only complicate things even more. They have been pouring over files and files that date back to the Second World War. Just to see if my story of being pregnant is correct. Suffice to say it is exhausting. " she said

"So why are you telling me all this?" he asked confused.

"Because you need to know who you are training. Natiro and Rin come from powerful lineages, so they will do excellent under your tutelage. Shinji needs someone to steer him towards his true potential. The Senju have always had massive amounts of chakra, though nothing compared to you, but I hear he has poor control. He also needs to learn about his strength and stamina, both of which are key Senju traits. He should be doing well in all shinobi techniques, but he seems to excel in only taijutsu. Work with him on this."

"Why do I always get the tough assignments?" he whinned.

"What, I just wanted my grandson to be trained by the best, and who better than the man declared to be my successor." She said while smiling.

"Awww, granny, your gonna make me blush" joked Naruto.

"Just make sure your students are ready in six months, I want all three rookie teams participating in the Chunin exams this year." She said turning back in to the Hokage.

"Yes mam." And with that Naruto flickered away into the night.

**{{{{Next Day}}}}**

It was eight o'clock at training ground 5, and three genin could be seen preparing for the days lessons. Rin was sharpening her tanto, Shinji was doing pull ups using a high branch as the bar, while Natiro sat under a tree meditating. After about ten minutes Naruto walked into the clearing.

"All right, everyone gather up." He ordered, "Okay, today we are going to get a basic or your skills. Everyone tell me your strengths and weaknesses. Natiro, you go first."

"I know all the basic taijutsu forms that they taught us in the academy, and I also know the basic jutsu. My father has been teaching me the tree walking technique to advance my chakra control as well."

"What's your strongest genjutsu?" Asked his sensei.

"Illusion Art: Spiraling Nightmare" replied the young shinobi.

"Hmm, that's a A class jutsu, impressive." Remarked Naruto.

"Sensei, what do you mean by A class?" asked Shinji.

"Right, Jutsu is ranked by letters, D, C, B, A, and S, with D being the lowest and S being the highest. The jutsu you guys learned in the academy are all D class ninjutsu. Missions are ranked the same way, with genin getting sent on D rank missions and only the strongest Jonin being sent on S class. Now, let's continue with the assessments, Rin, your next."

"I have been practicing Kenjutsu since I was 4, and I am excellent in Taijutsu. I know all the academy ninjutsu, and my genjutsu is decent, I can dispel without a problem. I am also proficient with ranged weaponry." She said without any of the emotion she had produced yesterday.

"Okay, okay, sounds good. Shinji, your last."

"I am really fast, as you guys know I can do the body flicker. I can do all the academy ninjutsu but my transformation still isn't that great. I received top marks in all my taijutsu and stealth assessments, but my theory and strategic scores always lowered my grades." Explained Shinji

"That's okay, being a shinobi is not always about outwitting your opponent. Sometimes all you can do is out power him. There have been many of times that I've survived missions just because I was just a little stronger, a little faster, or had a little more chakra left. While intelligence is a key part in being a shinobi, luck and strength are also important." Said their Sensei.

"Now, onto the lesson. I'm now going to teach you all the tree walking technique. Now Natiro, you said you have already begun learning this right?" At this Natiro nodded. "Good, then if you would, please show your teammates what exactly it entails."

Natiro turned around, readied himself, and ran towards the nearest tree. He brought his foot up and instead of jumping back off of the tree, he started to run up the trunk. In the matter of a few seconds he reached the top branch and sat on the bough.

"That, my young students, is tree walking. When you've mastered it you will be able to simply walk up the trunk, but right now running is your best bet. Now to accomplish this task, you must send chakra out from the soles of your feet. Too much and you will crush the bark and blast off, too little and you will slip right off. Natiro, I want you to work more on control, it's a good start, but more control and you won't have to run up the tree anymore. Rin and Shinji, take a kunai, and every time you start to feel yourself slip, mark how far you have gotten up the tree. Keep up this training until either you get to the top, or you feel yourself running out of chakra. I have a meeting to go too, Good Luck." And with that, he flickered off again.

"That's becoming an annoying occurrence." Remarked Shinji

With that they began training. Rin's first attempt resulted in her slipping off of the tree.

_To weak_ she thought.

Shinji had the exact opposite reaction, condensing too much chakra in his feet, leaving him sprawled on his stomach a few feet away, and a large indention in the trunk of the tree. After about an hour, both had managed to find the right amount of chakra, Shinji latter than Rin though.

_Im not gonna let her beat me _he thought and redoubled his efforts.

Natiro was training a few yards from the other two, and spent his time slowly emitting chakra from his feet as he literally walked around the trunk of tree. He was horizontal and was gauging how long he could keep up that kind of continuous chakra exertion. So far he was able to keep up the chakra flow for 5 minutes before losing control. Deciding to take a break he looked over at his teammates. For their first time with the technique, they were doing surprisingly well. Rin was more than half way up the tree with Shinji not far behind her. They were feeding off of each other, when one would advance, it would spur the other to try even harder, especially with Shinji, who wanted to prove that he wasn't as useless as Rin thought.

**Six Hours Later**

"I'm done" said Rin simply. As she collected her gear she noticed that Shinji continued to train.

"Your going to exhaust yourself idiot." She said.

"I'm not going to stop." He said back.

"Whatever" she said and walked off.

Natiro sat in his tree and watched Shinji strive to advance. Another two hours had passed and he had not made much head way, but he continued none the less.

"Why do you try so hard?" the young Kurama asked, breaking the silence.

Shinji looked over too him "Because I want to become Hokage, that's why." He said in response.

"But only the very strongest shinobi in the village can become Hokage."

"That's why I can't stop training," said Shinji, "Cause I have to get stronger and stronger If I want to make my dream come true."

"Why is it so important that you become Hokage?"

With that Shinji fell silent and is gaze drifted to the ground, a long silence fell and after a while Shinji spoke in a whisper that was barely audible, "Because I don't want to ever lose some one important again."

After that the silence continued with both boys looking at the ground. Finally Shinji broke the silence. "Well why do you want to take over your clan so badly, If you're the heir your already going to take it over right?"

It was Natiro's turn to feel forlorn. "But I am not the heir. I belong to a branch family. I don't know any of the secret techniques of the family. If I can beat the current heir in combat however Ill become the clan head, and bring them back to strength. My clan's been declining for years now. My parents are treated as servants by the main family even though they are barely stronger than us. We branch families outnumber the main family but the elders refuse to change the status quo. That is why I have to take over my clan, too make sure we stay relevant."

Shinji looked disgusted with himself. "I'm sorry, I didn't know."

Natiro waved off his apology. "No one does, I am the first Kurama to actually enter the Academy in years. Most of my cousins and other clan kids are taught by the elders and automatically are drafted into the interrogation force."

"Well, I know it doesn't mean much coming from the dead last of the Academy, but I'll help you get strong enough to revive your clan." Stated Shinji.

"No offense, but how would you do that?" asked Natiro.

"Don't take me lightly, you have to remember that not a single person was ever able to beat me in the taijutsu tournaments."

Natiro thought back, _He's right, he did win all of those tournaments, but his grades were always so bad we just thought he was a muscle bound idiot._

"So we spar?"

"Exactly, best way to get stronger is to work out your techniques, and the best way to do that is through combat." Shinji said.

"So when?"

"How about we spar every day before Naruto-sensei shows up, like 7:30, get a warm up going then go into training."

"That works, I think I'm going to go home, what about you?" said Natiro.

"I think I'll stay here a bit longer see if I can't at least catch up to Rin."

"I'll see you tomorrow then." Said Natiro with a wave and walked out of the training ground.

Shinji looked back at the tree and once more began trying to climb its immense trunk. Unbeknownst to him, he was being watched from across the grounds. Naruto didn't really have a meeting to attend to; he simply wanted to watch how his students performed. He was impressed with Rin for her progress, but even more so he was proud of Natiro and Shinji. They had created a bond right then and there, and they did not even know it. Shinji was surprising him as well, showing the Senju stamina that Tsunade had talked about. Naruto continued to watch until night started to fall. Shinji, after talking to Natiro, had found a new burst of determination, and had made leaps and bounds in the last few hours. He had not only caught up with Rin's progress, but had actually surpassed her.

_Well at least I know that he learns by doing, no wonder he has done bad in chakra control, all they do in the academy is teach the steps to them, they never actually give them an exercise to practice it. I really have to talk to granny Tsunade about the curriculum._ Thought the blond haired jonin.

Shinji was laying on the ground exhausted, but with a huge smile on his face. He wasn't at the top yet, but he was closer than Rin. _I can't wait to see her face tomorrow._ He thought while smirking.

And with that, he gather his gear and left for home, completely satisfied with his first day of training.

_Well, I may just have a good team after all._ Naruto thought to himself. And with a flicker, the final member of Team 7 left the training grounds.

**That took a lot longer than expected. I may not post a new chapter in a while since I have AC3 and Halo 4 now, and im surprising myself in writing this chapter. If you are concerned about Natiro and Shinji's friendship, don't worry, there will be absolutely no Yaoi in this story. Pairings may come later, but not right now. Like always PLEASE REVIEW. It helps immensely. Anywhoo, until next time. **


	5. Chapter 5

**Yo. Sorry I haven't posted in a bit, work and school are running me ragged. And if you work in a grocery store, you know exactly what I mean. Anyhoo, I GOTS ANOTHER REVIEW! YOSH! I is so happy. On to the next chapter. Oh and I don't own Naruto, cause if I did, I wouldn't be writing this fanfic, now would I?**

After the first day of training, the genin fell into a routine. Naruto added more exercises after that first meeting, making them run around the field, perform pushups, pull-ups, and tree walk for hours on end. After physical training he would run them through team tactics and survival skills.

All the while Shinji and Natiro would spar each day before he arrived. It soon became clear to the two boys where each of their skills lied. Whereas Natiro had better technical skill and was more proficient in basic taijutsu, Shinji's speed, strength, and sheer unpredictability kept them easily matched. Rin rarely interacted with the other two unless she had too, and neither of the two boys could understand why. Sure she had always had this superiority complex in the academy, but now she was downright unfeeling. They still had the image of the girl on the test day in their minds, slightly smug, but otherwise friendly. That girl had completely disappeared now.

It had been two weeks since they had become a team. Everyone had improved gradually, with Rin and Shinji both now able to run up the trees without a problem. Shinji and Natiro were sparring as usual. They had both agreed on the first day to go without weapons or ninjutsu, at least for now, since Natiro was the only one with any skill in jutsu. Shinji was pounding on Natiro's arms, as the latter had them in front of his face blocking the others blows. Shinji was relentless, not giving Natiro a chance to fight back. Suddenly Natiro ducked, and aimed a sweeping kick at Shinji's legs. Shinji flipped backwards, landing in a crouch, then sprinting back at Natiro. Natiro readied himself for the attack. Shinji swung with his left hand, which Natiro blocked with his arm. A right hook followed, with that being blocked as well. Natiro did a quick jab with his right, clipping Shinji on his cheek. Shinji stepped back, and swung his leg high in an arc, bringing it onto Natiro's once again upraised arm. Natiro staggered and Shinji used the opportunity to aim a right hook square across Natiro's jaw. The boy flew backwards landing sprawled on the ground.

"That makes 7 wins and 5 losses." Said the victor of the match.

Natiro got up rubbing his jaw. "Alright, alright, I'll get you tomorrow though."

"Bring it!" Shinji said with a laugh.

The moment was cut short when Rin arrived. Both boys had come to dread her presence in the mornings. Shinji because she was constantly remarking on his former "dead last" status whenever they trained, and Natiro because he had come to see Shinji as a friend, and didn't appreciate the way his comrade was treated. So they had developed a solution, they would say good morning, and then avoid her until their sensei showed up. Fortunately Naruto proved that his habitual lateness was a little less extreme than the first time, and showed up a mere 20 minutes after 8.

"Okay guys, gather round, you have all been training very hard the last couple of weeks, so I think is about time we take on a mission." He explained to the genin.

"YAHOOO!" shinji yelled.

"Finally." Was all that Natiro said.

Rin simply nodded at his words.

"Now remember, genin are only allowed to start off on D rank missions." Said Naruto

"Yeah, yeah, come on Naruto-sensei, let's go get this mission. I bet it's gonna be awesome!" said Shinji.

_Two hours Later_

"THIS SUCKS!" yelled Shinji.

When Team 7 had reached the Hokage mansion, the first mission that they received was cleaning up one of the alley ways in Konoha that a group of dogs had ransacked.

"I told you that missions are ranked by difficulty. D are the least difficult, often times being odd jobs around the village that citizens need done." Explained their sensei while watching them work.

Natiro was sweeping the alley with a large broom, pushing all the trash into a large pile, while Rin and Shinji picked up the trash and placed it into bags, which would later be placed into the dumpsters at the front of the alley.

Naruto continued, "Once you guys have proven that you can work together, and have a successful completion rate on missions, and then we can start taking more difficult ones. By the way, we will be changing the schedule from here on out. Mornings we will continue with our training, but in the afternoons we will take on missions, that way we can work on your teamwork and you can make some money at the same time. If there aren't any missions, then we will take the afternoon and get in some extra training."

It took the team another half an hour to finish cleaning the mess. Naruto sent them home and went to report the success of the mission. The next day all three genin found paychecks sitting in their mailboxes. Sure, it was only 20 dollars apiece, but it was still money that they had earned.

This cycle continued for another month, with them clean houses, gardening, babysitting, and catching runaway pets (one nasty mission involved catching this cat that belonged to the daughter of the daimyo, which Naruto laughed at the entire time).

It was on a Wednesday afternoon that Team 7 once again made their way into the Hokage's mansion.

"Hmmm, quite impressive, Team 7 had completed 13 D rank missions. " said the Hokage, "now let's see, there's a citizen who needs some boxes delivered across the village, or how about cleaning up training ground 14, or…."

"Not a chance! We want a real mission!" exclaimed Shinji.

"Well, let's see what your sensei has to say. Naruto, do you think that they are ready?" asked Tsunade.

"Actually, I do. They have improved drastically over the last month and a half. I think they are ready for a harder mission." Stated the blond jonin.

"All right, well then, I do have a few C rank missions. Here's one that shouldn't be too difficult. There is a convoy going from here to a village a few miles from the Land of Rice. They are worried about bandits and have requested an escort. Your team should do adequately." Said Tsunade.

"ALL RIGHT!" yelled shinji.

Naruto simply sighed. "When is the convoy leaving?" he asked

"Tomorrow at 7 o'clock a.m." The Hokage said.

"All right, you guys have the day off. Go home and prepare for the mission. You are to meet me at the Gates at 6:30, got it?" said their sensei.

"Right" they said as one.

**Annnnd The end. Sorry its short, I gotta prepare myself for the mission. **

**Now to acknowledgements:**

**Keeper of the Worlds: Ill introduce her eventually, ive got a good idea how to do it, but its gonna have to wait for a little while.**

**I may not update for a little bit, works gonna be crazy next week due to thanksgiving, so bear with me and hold out. Anyhoo, until next time.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Im back, so wassup. Sorry it took so long, like I said, this last week has been HELL! People are crazy about groceries. Anyhoo, it's time to get into the team's first C rank mission, YEAAAAAAAA!**

**So, as before, ON TO BATTLE!**

Shinji was pacing outside the gates to the village. It was 6:25 in the morning, but he was wide awake. He had been up since 5:30 because he was so excited to be going on this mission. All of his gear was packed in a small backpack, and his staff was leaning on a bench.

Five minutes later, he saw Rin and Natiro walking towards them.

"Finally!" he said exasperated.

"Hey, not all of us are impatient idiots." Said Natiro.

"Yeah, well at least I'm not some emo geek." Shinji shot back.

The two friends smirked at this exchange and high fived each other.

"We finally get a mission to prove ourselves man." Said Shinji.

"Definitely. Were one step closer to our goals." Said his friend.

Rin simply stood there in silence, pondering thoughts that the other two honestly did not care to know.

A few minutes later their sensei walked up from the road. They were not surprised, and honestly would have been shocked if he had shown up when he said he would.

"Okay guys, you heard the basic intelligence from the Hokage. We will be escorting a trade caravan from here to a village called Kumadori, which rests a few miles from our border with the Land of Rice. It takes four days to get there at the speed we will be moving. While there has been no bandit activity lately, it does not mean that they will not attack this caravan. Now for your positions, Shinji, you have the fastest reaction speed so I want you behind the caravan. Natiro, Rin, you will be one the left and right sides respectively. I will be travelling at the front. Any questions?"

All of the genin stayed silent.

"Good, now, the client should be here in a few minutes, so I want you all to do some warm ups and stretches."

"Yes sensei." Said his three charges.

As he watched his genin go through their exercises, he began to read over a report from a scouting mission that came back a few days ago. While he was normally skeptical over the validity of these reports (in his opinion the quality of chunin in the last ten years had fallen) his friend Shino had been the one leading the mission, so the information was more than reliable. It detailed that a large group had moved through the forests a week ago. They were not shinobi, as they would have been able to cover their tracks. This either suggested a bandit party or a group of travelers who did not wish to use the road. In Naruto's opinion, it was the former. This worried him. According to the report, the party consisted of at least 20 members. While he could handle that number, he was worried that his students could get injured or killed if he wasn't vigilant. These bandits would not be adverse to killing children, especially if they saw that they were Leaf shinobi. He wouldn't tell his genin this, but he would keep a few extra clones in the forests to watch for trouble.

At 7 o'clock sharp the caravan rolled up to the gate. Its driver was a friendly old man by the name of Wakaba. His two sons Wataro and Wanabe were going with him as well, to act as both extra guards and to help his sell his goods.

With the whole group together, the shinobi took up their positions, and the group moved out of the gates, into the forest.

**Three Days Later – Forest**

"Uggghhh" groaned Shinji, "This is sooo boring."

They had been traveling for three days straight and the most exciting thing that had happened was a rabbit had jumped out of bush and scared Shinji.

While the other two did not say anything, they shared in Shinji's frustration. While yes, it was better than having to clean up trash or babysit some brats, it did not change the fact that they were still not able to show any results of their training.

Wanabe and Wataro were amazed however. They had only seen shinobi from a distance or if they came into their shop for some supplies, so being able to leave the village and travel with four of them was a dream come true. Wakaba smiled at his sons. He had been on plenty of trips with shinobi escorts, some eventful, some not. After a few more trips, the amazement would ware off, and they would come to see them just as people. For now however, he let them enjoy their wonder.

Wanabe was walking next to Natiro, and was asking him all types of questions.

"Is it true that shinobi can walk up tree's and on water?" he eagerly asked.

"Yes, all three of us have learned the tree walking technique, but we have not started on the water walk however." Natiro said, slightly irritated. The young man had been asking him about all types of things, from chakra to taijutsu to the forehead protector. It was exhausting to answer everything.

Wataro on the other hand was silent. He was walking next to Rin, and she had made it quite clear she would answer no question from him.

Naruto was sitting with Wakaba on the caravan. He was dozing in the sun.

They continued walking until it started to get dark, then Wakaba pulled the caravan off to the side of the road and began to set up camp. While the civilians built up a tent for themselves, the four shinobi simply laid out their sleeping mats and began to get a fire started. The first night no one but Naruto and Wakaba could make a fire, but over the course of the journey Naruto taught his young students various survival techniques that had been glossed over in the academy. He pointed out edible plants and medicinal herbs. He taught them how to make a fire, identify tracks, and set up snares. Shinji did the best in these impromptu lessons, showing off his extensive knowledge off the wildlife.

"I still don't understand how you know all this stuff Shinji." Said Natiro.

"I spent most of my free time outdoors, either training in the woods or just playing. I learned a lot by trial and error, and what my dad and sister showed me. Trust me, you learn what plants are edible and which aren't real quick if you get stomach problems for a week after eating one mushroom." Explained Shinji.

Rin was sitting at the edge of the fire sharpening her tanto. She had barely said four sentences the entire trip. Both Natiro and Shinji had attempt to get to know her better during the mission, but suffice to say they were unsuccessful. She just did not want to talk to them.

Naruto knew different than his students. He knew about her past, and her problems, and he also knew that she would tell them when she was ready; there was no use in pressuring her.

"Okay, everyone hit the sack; we have to be up early tomorrow if we are going to make it to the village by afternoon." Said Naruto.

Shinji laid down on his mat and closed his eyes. Within five minutes, he was fast asleep.

**IIIIIIIIIIII**

"SHINJI! GET UP NOW!"

Shinji woke with a start. All around him he heard yelling and screaming.

He saw some man in a mask running towards him with a dagger in his hand. Shinji was rooted in place, unable to move. As the dagger came down towards Shinji's head, Naruto appeared in front of him with a kunai in one hand, and some kind of swirling ball of chakra in the other. He blocked the dagger with his kunai, and shoved the chakra ball into the stomach of the bandit. The bandit went wide eyed, and was blasted off into the tree line, spinning as he flew.

"Shinji, we are under attack, protect the civilians, ill handle the main force." And with that his sensei disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Shinji grabbed his staff and dashed to where Rin and Natiro were. Wakaba, Wanabe and Wataro were all on the caravan, with the latter two holding out the spears they had brought in order to protect their father. Rin had her tanto drawn and was trading blows with a large man wielding are longer nodachi. Natiro had two bandits trapped in a genjutsu and was dodging blows from another. Shinji put on a burst of speed and slammed his fist into the bandits jaw, sending his sprawling. At the same time Rin parried a strike from her adversary, and quickly counter by spinning and sending a swipe straight at his throat, surprising him and easily slicing through.

Five more bandits charged. Rin dashed at them, catching one off guard and plunging her sword into his chest. While her guard was down, the bandit next to her swung down his ax. Right before it connected Shinji blocked it with his staff, brought his staff up, and deflected the ax to the side. As the bandit staggered Natiro came in and punched him in the face. Shinji turned his attention to the other three. They were a little more wary now and treated the three genin with caution.

"We attack all at once?" asked Natiro.

"Exactly." Stated Shinji.

"Hnn." Was all Rin supplied, but nodded in agreement.

"GO!" The three dashed at their targets.

Shinji jumped in the air and brought his staff slamming down on top of the middle bandit. He brought his club up to block the blow, but the wood splintered under the metal staff and great strength of the young shinobi. The staff connected with the bandits head, knocking him out cold.

Rin faced the bandit on the left, letting off a furious combination of swipes from her tanto. The bandit could barely block the attacks with his own blade. After a few seconds of this exchange Rin landed a swipe across his chest, and while he was stunned she stabbed her tanto into his throat, killing him.

Natiro was more elegant. He performed a series of quick handsigns and shouted "Illusion Art: Binding Roots!" The bandits eyes glazed over, and as he looked down at his feet, he began screaming about how the roots were growing all over him. He became immobile and Natiro left him as he was.

The three heard a noise, spun around, and prepared for a fight, but relaxed when they saw that it was just their sensei. Naruto examined the scene before him. Two bandits dead and the rest unconscious. The caravan was unharmed, and none of his students had received any major injuries.

"I'd say that this was a successful mission, wouldn't you?" he asked his charges.

"Where were you, we could have used your help?" asked Natiro.

"You didn't need my help at all, you each held your own exceedingly well. And besides, I had a few clones watching you from the trees. If anything would have happened, they would have reacted in an instant." He said nonchalantly, "Now, I say since we are all awake, we might as well get a move on. I've already sent a message to the Hokage and a group of ANBU will be along in a short while to get this mess cleaned up. We should go ahead and get moving towards Kumadori." And with his insistence, the small band packed up their gear, tied up the unconscious bandits, and proceeded down the road.

**IIIIIIIIIIII**

It was 1 o'clock when they pulled into Kumadori. It was a quiet little town, not very special, but had a few nice hot springs for travelers either going too or coming from the Land of Rice. It was at one of these hot springs that the four shinobi now found themselves. They had said goodbye to Wakaba and his sons at the gate. They shop keeper would be spending a few days in town to sell his wares and would be receiving a different guard on the way back. Naruto's team would be there only for the night and would head back to Konoha in the morning.

Currently they were all soaking in the hot springs, relaxing their muscles. Tourism was low at this time of the year and at this time of the day, there was no one at the springs.

"Rin, get close to the wall, I want to go over some things while we are all together. Now, as far as a review of your actions this morning, you all did far above average. All of you acted with a cool head and worked as a team to take down your opponents. However, do not go getting a big head. These were simple bandits, not trained shinobi. If they had been shinobi, you would not have done as well. Shinji, you were two slow in reacting to the situation. If I had not been there you would have been dead. You have to be vigilant at all times when out in the field, and that includes while your asleep. It will come with experience, but if a situation is disorientating, retreat, they get a clear view of the actions taking place." Said the older shinobi.

Shinji simply nodded at this, he knew he would have died if not for his sensei.

"Natiro, your genjutsu are exceptional, but you are too obvious in your execution, if they had any training at all they would have been able to disable your jutsu and attack. Genjutsu users use trickery and subterfuge to catch their opponents. Work on that. And as for Rin. Your skill with that blade wasn't an exaggeration, but your form leaves too many openings. I noticed that your knuckles are all bruised. That's from connecting to the opponents weapons when you are swinging, am I right? Your attacks are so wild and unpredictable, you have a hard time judging where some of them will land, so you end up bashing your hands on armor or weapons. While this style was okay against the bandits, shinobi will easily see through you and counter you. We will work on this, trust me."

The other two accepted the criticism readily. They knew that they had things they needed to work on, if they didn't then they would already be jonin now.

"Enough of that, Job well done guys, enjoy the hot springs, everythings on me tonight." Said Naruto.

"YAHOO, You're the best Naruto-sensei!" exclaimed Shinji.

"Naruto-sensei, I have a question." Said Natiro.

"Shoot."

"How did you defeat all those bandits by yourself, I mean surely they outnumbered you?" asked Natiro.

"Its actually quite simple, I used Shadow Clones." Responded Naruto.

"What are Shadow Clones?" asked Shinji.

"Shadow Clones are physical bodies created from the casters chakra. They can work autonomously from the shinobi in question, and produce physical attacks and can perform any jutsu the caster knows. They can be dispelled with a strong attack or by the casters will, but upon dispelling all information that they have acquired is transferred to the original." Rin said from out of nowhere.

"You hit the nail on the head Rin. Most shinobi can only create three or four shadow clones because the chakra is dispersed evenly among the clones. Because I have a very large chakra reserve, I can create up to 800 or more." Said Naruto.

His genin were genuinely surprised at this. They were starting to see their teacher in a new light. Suddenly Shinji recalled another weird thing from the battle.

"Sensei, what was that ball thing you had in your hand?" he asked

"Ohh, that, that's a technique called the Rasengan. It involves circulating your chakra into the palm of your hand, and when it connects with anything it causes immense damage, as the chakra breaks out in spirals and waves." Naruto said.

"Could we learn any of those techniques?" asked Shinji

"Maybe later on, but not at the moment, you guys don't have enough chakra to perform these techniques yet." He said.

After having their curiosity sated, the three genin took to enjoying the hot springs. One by one they left the springs for the comfort of their rooms. Naruto had ordered a large amount of food for everyone and they ate until they couldn't eat anymore.

At about 9 o'clock Naruto ushered them off to bed.

"We're leaving first thing in the morning, and we will be moving quite faster than we did when we were coming up here, you guys need your rest."

None of the young shinobi argued, as they were tired from the fighting early that morning, and went to sleep, proud of their performance in their first real mission.

**Well, Happy belated Thanksgiving everyone. Hope you liked the chapter. Come next one ill start advancing their abilities a bit, and a surprise as well. Not a big one mind you, but just a teeny one. I got exams and papers and speeches (oh my) coming up, so the next update might not be soon. Please bear with me, and don't forget too review. Anyhoo, until next time, peace.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Yo. Well im back yet again. This chapter will be not as fast paced as the last one. Here you go. NEW CHAPTER. Your very welcome.**

_Thoughts _(sorry if it wasn't clear before)

It was the morning after the mission to Kumadori. Naruto woke them up early and they set off at daybreak.

Their sensei used every opportunity to strengthen his students, so instead of a leisurely run back to the village, they instead moved at a break neck pace. They only stopped twice to catch a breather and eat some energy bars that Naruto brought with him. Had they done this a month and a half ago, none of them would have made the distances that they did, but with all the conditioning Naruto put them through they were half way to the village by night fall. Naruto kept them going however. He explained that in emergencies they would be required to move as quickly as possible and to make continuous progress. Travelling day and night was a mainstay in the life a shinobi. He handed them three small pills.

"These are soldier pills. The general idea is that these will keep a person up and moving for days on end. Most of the time they are used in prolonged battles, but these are a fairly weak dose and should just keep you going through the night. "

While Natiro and Rin were hesitant, Shinji popped the small orb straight into his mouth and swallowed. Seeing that he didn't keel over and start choking, the other two did the same. They immediately felt their weariness wash away and were more alert.

"Just a warning, when they wear off, you're going to be three times as tired as you would normally be." Their sensei warned.

With that they took off again.

"Naruto sensei, why didn't you take a pill." Asked Shinji.

"Let's just say I have a lot more stamina than a normal person." He said.

They fell into silence after that. Throughout the night they ran through the tree tops, rarely stopping. By first mornings light they saw that gates of Konoha. When they touched down on the road Naruto turned to them.

"I am quite proud of your performances on this mission, and on your perseverance on our run back. You guys get the day off, so rest up. Tomorrow, Im going to work you guys even harder though." And with that he flickered away.

Shinji yawned. "Well, im going to go home and sleep. I'll see you guys in tomorrow."

Natiro was bleery eyed and merely responded with a wave. Rin was already walking away.

**Next Day**

At 8 o'clock the next morning Naruto actually showed up on time, which shocked and scared his students. Natiro and Shinji had just finished their daily spar. While Natiro was still a little wore out from the run, Shinji was just as energetic as ever.

"Okay guys; get over here, Im going to teach you something new today. I noticed that during the mission that Natiro was the only one who used any type of jutsu. Now while Im not saying that taijutsu isn't an integral part of being a shinobi, you need to have some ninjutsu as well. That's why today we are going to find out your chakra affinities." He said to his young charges.

"How are we going to do that Naruto-sensei?" asked Natiro.

"Glad you asked, you will be using these." He handed each of them a small slip of yellowish paper.

"That is chakra litmus paper. It works by channeling your chakra into the paper. When your chakra enters it, the paper will react depending on the affinity you have. Fire affinity will burn the paper, water affinity will make it damp, earth will turn it to dust, lightning will wrinkle the paper, and wind will split it in two." With that Naruto held up a piece of paper in his hand. Almost immediately the paper split into two separate pieces.

"That's so cool Naruto-sensei!" exclaimed Shinji.

"Okay, each of you take a piece and focus." Explained the jonin.

Each one took a piece of paper into their hands and focused their chakra into the paper. At once Shinji's paper turned to dust. He looked to his teammates. Rin's paper had wrinkled while Natiro's had split in two.

(Naruto) _Rin and Shinji Im not surprised about, Natiro though, most members of the Kurama clan have a water affinity. I definetly got an interesting team._

"Well, Shinji has an earth affinity, Natiro has wind, and Rin has lightning. Now we can get down to training. To use your affinities in battle, you have to use what is called a Nature Transformation. It is literally transforming your chakra into the element you have an affinity for. To do this you need better chakra control. All of you can do the tree walking technique without much trouble now, so from now on we will be working on the water walking technique. It's a lot harder than tree walking, because unlike tree walking where you emit the same amount of chakra constantly, to walk on water you must constantly adjust the amount due to the fact that the surface is constantly changing. Now I want you three to work on just this today. No strength exercises or missions, just water walking. Trust me; it will take you that long just to grasp the basics. There is a stream just on the other side of the tree line, I suggest you get started."

The three walked through the trees to where the stream was. It didn't flow particularly fast, but was deep is some places and quite cold.

_Heh, this is gonna be a breeze _thought Shinji.

He gathered the chakra on his feet, stepped out onto the deeper portion of the stream… and fell straight into the water. Natiro busted out laughing as his friend sputtered and coughed in the cold water, while Rin was testing her own chakra level out on a shallower end.

_Its difficult, but not impossible,_ she thought, _the changes to the chakra flow don't have to be large, just minute. The surface is moving, that's the secret behind it, the changes in flow are to keep up with the changing surface. The previous chakra moves with the water, leaving you without a barrier for a few key seconds, long enough for you to fall and lose your concentration. _

Rin's thoughts were disturbed by another loud splash. Natiro had just attempted the technique, and was now sitting in the shallow end of the river, cursing the technique. It was Shinji's turn to laugh, though he was drenched from head to toe.

Rin was thinking whether she should tell her teammates about her theory. She needed to beat everyone if she was going to make her mother proud. But then she remembered the day of the test, how they had worked together, and the previous mission, when Shinji intervened against that bandit. She had already had her substitution jutsu ready, so the man would not have hurt her, but Shinji had rushed in to help her without a second thought. She smirked, plus that idiot Shinji would never get it at this rate. Shinji just powered through everything, and while Natiro seemed to be a prodigy, what they didn't know was that the main reason for his success was that he trained and studied harder than anyone else. Even after training was over for the day, he would go home and pour over scroll after scroll of theory and jutsu. His stamina was not as great as Shinji's, but his will was on par with his friend.

"He idiots, you want to know the secret behind this technique?" asked Rin.

The boys were shocked. Not so much by her understanding the task, but the fact that she was willing to tell them how to do it. Both nodded at the white haired kunoichi, and she went into telling them how to do it. Both boys grasped the idea, but putting it into practice was something else entirely. By the end of the day, Rin was the only one who could keep a foot on the water's surface, but even she couldn't walk out onto the stream. Shinji once again stayed behind to keep on practicing, while his two teammates went home.

**IIIIIIIIIIII  
**

Two months had passed since that first C rank mission. Naruto kept training his students and having them complete missions. Since then they had completed two more C rank missions. One involved taking a message to the Kazekage in Sunagakure. This mission surprised the young genin even more than the first, as they found out that their sensei was good friends with the Kazekage. Their second mission involved escorting fairly large convoy going to the Land of Rice. All the while they still trained relentlessly. Shinji was disappointed however. Ever since learning his chakra affinity he wanted to learn some new jutsu. Naruto-sensei had yet to teach them anything.

"Ill start teaching you when everyone can successfully walk on water." He had told them.

Everyone could however. Two days ago Shinji was finally able to run across the stream without any problems. Obviously Rin had mastered it first, and Natiro got it just a few days after her. It had taken Shinji another week before he mastered it. Now he was impatient with his sensei.

He and Natiro had just finished their spar. Shinji's count was now up to 29 wins, 28 losses, and 7 draws. Naruto-sensei was later than usual today, and it wasn't until almost nine that he showed up.

"Sorry I'm late guys, I had to finish up some last minute business about today's training session. Now I know you guys have wanted to learn some new jutsu, so today I am going to teach it to you. Here's the problem, Rin, I can't teach you any lightning jutsu because I don't have a lightning affinity. However, I did find someone who could teach you. Come on out Kakashi-sensei."

Suddenly an older shinobi with tower like white hair flickered into view. His forehead protector was at an angle, and completely covered his left eye.

"Yo" was all he said.

Shinji and Natiro were staring at this guy. His laid back attitude reminded them of their own sensei. Shinji was going to remark about this to Rin when he saw her with her fist clenched and a look of absolute fury on her face. Shinji was sacred, he had no idea why she should be so mad at the new comer.

"Kakashi-sensei was my teacher when I was a genin. He was also a very feared shinobi in his time. He is retired now, but he agreed to come out and help train Rin while I train the other two." Said Naruto.

Natiro spoke up at this. "Sensei, I thought you said you had a wind affinity, how could you train Shinji?"

"Everyone has secondary affinities. That's one of the qualifiers of being a jonin is acquiring your secondary chakra affinity. A lot of high level jonin even have three affinities. Mine are Wind, Earth, and Water in that order, with wind being my primary affinity." Explained Naruto, "Now Rin, you are going to go with Kakashi to train while I keep these two here with me, alright?"

"Yes Naruto-sensei." She said without emotion. Her eyes however burned with anger at what her Sensei was forcing her to do.

"Come on Rin, we have a lot to talk about." Said Kakashi.

When the other two had left Shinji spoke up. "Sensei, why was Rin so angry about seeing that old guy?"

"I didn't think that she had told you two yet." Said Naruto.

"Told us what?" asked Natiro.

"Huhh, well as her teammates I suppose you should know, but what I am about to tell you cannot be repeated to her, it's her life and she has the right to tell you when she is ready. Rin's parents are divorced. That man is her father, Kakashi Hatake. He divorced her mother six years ago because he did not agree with her way of thinking. Her mother is Nanao Takura, one of the leading members on the civilian council. She also happens to be the leader of the coalition that has been trying to take administrative powers away from the Hokage for the last six years. Her brother was a shinobi, and died on a high risk mission. Takura blames the Hokage, and believes that the office should answer to the Civilian Council. Unfortunately some of the other council members agree with her. Kakashi-sensei has always stood by the Hokage, and when he could not persuade his wife otherwise, he left her. Since then Rin's mother has been pushing her to be the best possible, to give her a strong voice in the shinobi upper ranks. Kakashi has limited visitation rights. Her mother has also raised Rin to be against her father. I'm telling you this so you can understand where she is coming from. All her life she has been taught that she must be the absolute best, and not to rely on others. Then she gets contradictory teachings from the academy. She is very confused about how to go about her life."

"Wow, I had no idea her life was that messed up." Said Shinji.

"Understanding another's pain is a great skill as a shinobi, but one that few have. Learning to understand one another could end a lot of hardship in this world, remember that." Their sensei said.

"Yes sensei" said the two.

"Now, lets get down to the jutsu. Natiro, I am going to teach you Wind Release: Great Breakthrough. It's a low level technique designed to push targets away. Shinji, yours is Earth Release: Mole Movement Jutsu. It allows you to move underground almost uninhibited. Problem is you will only be able to move through dirt. Stone will be impassable to you. You can also only stay under as long as you have chakra and breath. "

He then showed them the techniques. First was the Wind technique. He performed a few short handsigns then pushed his hands out and a great gust of wind blew across the field. Next was the earth technique. It took a few more hand signs, but upon completion he quickly sunk underground and popped up right behind Shinji.

"For right now I want you two to simply practice the handsigns. Make sure you are completely comfortable with them, especially you Shinji. Then when you feel that you have mastered them, flow your chakra into the handsigns as you make them. At the end you should activate the jutsu. I'm going to go see how Rin is doing." And with that he flickered away.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Said Shinji excitedly, and the two began weaving the handsigns.

**With Rin**

Rin and her teacher had reached a small clearing in the woods. She was still furious with both her sensei and the man in front of her.

"Okay, so here we are." Said Kakashi.

To be honest he was nervous and scared. He rarely got to talk to his daughter. They hadn't spoken in nearly a year, since his ex-wife allowed him to visit her. It started out well, but ended badly when she said that the Hokage needed to listen to the Council and Kakashi said that she was wrong. She got furious with him and stormed out. Now here he was trying to teach her lightning jutsu.

"Why are you here?" Rin asked.

"To teach you lightning ninjutsu." He said

"You never cared before how I did." She said.

"I do care, I have always cared."

"Yeah, that's why you left me and mom." She mumbled.

Kakashi was hurt by this. "I didn't leave you, I love you Rin, but me and your mom… We don't get along, we see the world differently. It didn't work."

"YOU DIDN'T EVEN TRY! YOU JUST LEFT!" She screamed.

"I know, I should have taken you with me. But you have to see it my way, at the time I was still active. I had a lot of enemies, I couldn't take care of you the way you needed."

"Shut up, I don't want to hear it, just teach me the stupid jutsu." She said.

Kakashi was hurt. He didn't expect her to forgive him immediately, but for her to just shut him out was heartbreaking.

"Fine, if that's what you want, this jutsu is called Lightning Release: Static Armor. The gist of it is that you coat your body in a thin layer of chakra and it creates an area of static electricity. The electricity numbs anyone who touches it, but can also be used to speed up your reaction time." He performed a series of quick handsigns and suddenly Rin could see sparks jumping around his body. "It won't numb the opponent for long, but it gives you an advantage. Now its your turn."

Rin went through the handsigns and accessed her chakra, but not a single spark appeared.

"Don't get discouraged," her father said, "chakra transformation is an advance skill."

"Stop talking, I need to concentrate." She said.

Kakashi fell silent. _I wish I could make everything allright._

This time Rin poured all her strength into the jutsu. Sparks flew around her body for a few seconds but then the jutsu ended.

"Well done, you should be proud of yourself, your second attempt and you created armor. Very Impressive."

"Hmmphh"

Kakashi sighed, this was going to be a long training session.

**IIIIIIIII**

Naruto was sitting in a tree not too far from the father and daughter pair. He wasn't sure how this would work out, but Kakashi was the strongest lightning release user in the village, so the best person to train Rin.

He flickered back to check on the boys. Both Shinji and Natiro had made no progress so far. Each was still struggling to get their chakra flow right.

Naruto left them to it. In his opinion, the best teacher was experience.

**And…that's the end of this chapter. Okay, so if your still wondering the small surprise was the Chakra test and Rins back story. Hope you liked it, im not that good with drama. As before please, please review. It keeps me going and helps the creative juices flow. Anywhoo, until next time.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Wassup my peeps.** **I back, once again. Nothing new to report so, BOOM…NEW CHAPTER.**

**And I don't own Naruto, but you already knew that.**

Shinji was still struggling with the handsigns. It had already been three hours since Naruto-sensei showed him the technique, but he still couldn't sink into the ground. Just an hour ago Natiro gave up and left, saying he was going to study chakra theory a bit to. Shinji was left all alone in the field, or so he thought. Naruto was hiding in a tree a few yards away, watching his student.

Over and over again he built up chakra into his hands and wove the signs, but still nothing happened.

_Wait. _He thought. _Maybe it's not just the hands._

On his next try as he wove the signs he sent some chakra to his feet as well. When he completed the set he felt himself sink just a bit.

"YOSH!" he yelled into the air.

He immediately wove the signs again, sending as much chakra to his feet as he was to his hands. He was disappointed however that he still only caused a depression in the earth. He was puzzled but kept on going anyway. By night fall he was nowhere closer to diving as he was hours before. He resolved to ask his sensei the next day what he was doing wrong, and with that he left.

Naruto left the same time Shinji did, and went to give the Hokage his weekly report.

**Hokage Mansion**

Naruto flickered into the hallway outside the Hokage's office. Just then he noticed Shikamaru walking towards him as well.

"Whats up Shikamaru, how's the whole teaching thing working for you."

"Troublesome, Kiba's nephew is just as wild as he is, while that Miro girl is way to high strung. The only one who isn't troublesome is Yano." He complained

"She shouldn't be, she's spent enough time with you before the squad assignments, it's only natural that she picked up her big brothers laziness."

"Your troublesome too." He said.

"You think everyone is Troublesome, except for Temari of course." Naruto said with a smirk.

At this Shikamaru got nervous and looked away.

"Ah, still haven't picked up the nerve to pop the question, have we?" Naruto was full on smiling now, enjoying his friends discomfort.

"Shut up, just so you know, I am planning on asking her when she comes for the Chunin exams in three months. Happy?" He retorted.

"Wait… the exams are being held here?" asked Naruto.

"Yeah, weren't you there when the Hokage briefed us about it a week ago."

"Hehe… actually I skipped that meeting. I had some work to do and…"

"What you mean to say is that you were at Ichiraku's stuffing your face." Said Shikamaru

"Hehe…" Naruto sweat dropped at this.

"Anyway, come on, we need to give our troublesome reports to the Hokage."

They both walked into the office. Tsunade was sitting at her desk shifting though her mountain of paperwork. Shizune was at a smaller desk, and seemed to be getting a lot more done than her master was. Years ago Tsunade had decided that Shizune would help her with the paperwork of the village. After all, Sakura was the head of the medic corp. now, why couldn't Shizune help her out in the office.

"Shikamaru Nara and Naruto Uzumaki here to report on the statuses of squads 7 and 8" said Shikamaru.

Tsunade looked up from her files. "Very well, continue."

"Aishira Inuzka, Sayuri Miro, and Yano Sarutobi have all progressed quite quickly. I administered the chakra test yesterday. Aishira has an earth affinity, Sayuri has a water affinity, and Yano has a fire affinity. I have begun Nature Transformation training as well." Reported Shikamaru.

"Shinji Kiran, Natiro Kurama, and Rin Hatake have all grown more accustomed to teamwork, and are working quite well. I have also administered the chakra test, with Shinji having an earth affinity, Natiro having a wind affinity, and Rin having a lightning affinity. I've decided to postpone the transformation training until tomorrow, as to let them try their hands at some techniques I showed them."

"And what happened after you showed them the techniques." Asked the Hokage.

"Both Shinji and Natiro were unsuccessful in their attempts to perform the jutsu. Only Rin was successful in her attempt, though I believe it is partially due to who her teacher was." Said Naruto

"Who did you get to teach her?" Tsunade was curious, Naruto wasn't the type of guy to let others mess with his lessons.

"I brought Kakashi-sensei in to teach her, as I do not have a lightning affinity, and he is still currently the strongest lightning release user in the village."

Tsunade was a little apprehensive. Everyone in her inner circle knew about Kakashi's ex-wife. They felt for Kakashi. Tsunade knew all too well what it was like not to be in your daughter's life.

"Don't push the matter Naruto. That is one relationship that is going to have to work itself out. Thank you for the reports, you are dismissed." She said.

With that, the two jonin flickered away, into the night.

**Next Day**

"Okay guys, I'm going to show you a new training method today." Said Naruto.

Team 7 was at their normal training grounds. Shinji had yet to ask his sensei about the technique, but was interested in this new training.

"Here's how it works. Each elemental affinity produces a different type of effect. Fire burns, wind cuts, earth crushes, water pushes, and lighting pierces. What you three are going to do is three different exercises designed to help you with your Nature transformation. Natiro, you are going to take this leaf and cut it in half using only your chakra. Shinji, you are going to take this rock and attempt to crush it with just chakra. Rin, you are going to take these senbon, and try and pierce that rock pillar right there. Any questions?"

Shinji spoke up, "How is this going to help us perform the techniques?"

"Glad you asked. What you guys are attempting is a Chakra Nature Transformation. You are taking raw chakra and turning it into something completely different. If you can make your chakra transform at will, then it will be easier for you to perform elemental ninjutsu. Now I want you to get started, I've already been by the Hokage's office today, we have a two D rank missions to handle this afternoon, so I want you to get all the practice you can with this. These exercises will be the focus for the rest of the week. We will get back to physical training next week, and this will take the place of water walking, but I want you to practice that and tree walking in your spare time as well."

The genin then went to their exercises. Naruto meanwhile began to examine the mission reports. One merchant needed help moving boxes and a woman needed someone to watch her children while she ran some errands. Simple enough, and the pay wasn't too bad for these kids either. The morning would have continued this way if not for a new presence a few minutes later.

Shinji was the first to notice. Truth be told, after the first minute of his exercise he had let his mind wander. He wasn't one just to sit still and focus. Not his strong suit. So when he sensed the new chakra signature he was curious. He turned in the direction of the chakra and saw one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen. She had long lavender hair that hung down behind her back and wore a purple shirt that covered with her large belly, meaning that she was pregnant, and quite far along. She wore a white jacket over her shirt, and wore white pants and shinobi sandals. She had a leaf headband wrapped around her neck, but what caught his breath were her eyes. They were pale, almost white, with an absence of visible pupils.

"Naru-kun," she called out.

Naruto turned around. His eyes lit up and a smile spread across his face.

"Hinata, what are you doing here? Wait, is there something wrong, are you feeling alright? " His voice took a very worried tone and he began checking her all over.

Hinata laughed. "I'm fine, you forgot your lunch this morning, so I thought I would bring it to you. I've also wanted a look at this team you're always talking about."

"Who's this Naruto-sensei?" asked Shinji. Natiro and Rin had also looked up, and walked over to where their sensei was.

"Guys, this is my wife, Hinata." He said.

The three looked in wonder. "Wow Naruto-sensei, I didn't think your wife would be this hot." Remarked Shinji.

Natiro hit him upside the head. "Shut up idiot."

"WHAT! It's a compliment!" he shouted enraged.

Hinata started to chuckle.

"How far along in your pregnancy are you Hinata-san?" asked Natiro.

"I'm at eight months. We are actually expecting twins." She said.

"Nice job Naruto-sensei." Said Shinji with an impressed look on his face. That remarked earned him another smack from Natiro.

"You seriously have no sense of couth do you?" said his friend.

Shinji just started to mutter darkly and shoot daggers at Natiro.

"Well, I really should be going. I'm seeing Sakura for a checkup later so I don't want to be late. I'll see you tonight for dinner." She kissed Naruto lightly on the cheek and left.

"Alright you three, enough gawking, get back to your training." Ordered their Sensei.

Shinji, still grumbleing, went back to his rock.

**One Week Later**

Shinji was sitting with his rock cupped in his hand. He had been staring at the thing for over an hour, and he had barely made a chip in it. Natiro had already made a cut in his leaf. It wasn't large, but it was still progress. Rin had gotten one of her senbon to actually stick in the pillar as well. It wasn't very thick, but rock was rock, and senbon aren't that sturdy. Shinji couldn't understand what he was doing wrong. He had even asked Naruto-sensei how he could do it.

_Flashback: Two days prior_

"_Listen Shinji, to successfully use earth chakra you have to understand pressure. Pressure is what will collapse tunnels, propel you underground, cause fissures and shoot rocks. All earth techniques use pressure. That is what your chakra has to do. You must create pressure."_

Even though Shinji had listened, he still had no idea how to create the necessary pressure. He had layers of chakra pressing down on the rock, but it still refused to budge.

"ARRGGGGHHHH! Screw this, I'm going to take a run." And sped off.

Natiro looked to his sensei.

"Let him go, he needs to clear his head. Maybe by blowing off steam he will understand how to change his chakra."

**With Shinji**

He had ended up in a clearing a few miles away from the village, and was proceeding to take his anger out on a tree. He punched it repeatedly, creating indentions with each hit.

"You're going to bruise your knuckles doing that."

Shinji spun around. Behind him stood a huge man with red swirls on his cheeks, long brownish-red hair, and wore a heavy looking armor.

"It's none of your business what I'm doing." Said Shinji.

"It is when you're on my land. This land belongs to the Akimichi clan, and I am the clan head, therefore you are trespassing."

Shinji sweatdropped. He had heard of the Akimichi clan. Among the village shinobi they were said to be physically the strongest.

"But, I know a troubled young person when I see one. How about we share a cake and you tell me your problem."

Shinji was dumbfounded. First this guy tells him that he's trespassing then he offers him a cake.

"Why would you want to help me?" he asked

"Because you remind me of a friend of mine. He was a hot head during his youth too, not really smart either, but with the right teachers he became one of the strongest shinobi this village has seen. By the way, my name is Choji, Choji Akimichi."

Choji sat down and brought out a large box, which he opened and showed the contents to be nothing but cakes. Shinji sat down as well, and began to tell the older shinobi his difficulty with Nature Transformation.

"Ahh, I see. I have an earth affinity as well, so I know what you're dealing with. You are in the right direction surrounding the rock with your chakra, but you have to strike from within as well. True pressure is cause by two forces acting in opposition from one another. What you are doing is simply putting pressure on the outside. You have to flow your chakra into the stone from the bottom as well and push out. Then you should get the desired effect." Explained Choji.

"Here, try it this time, but create chakra pressure on both the surface of the rock, and from within the rock."

Shinji took the rock into his hand and did as the older shinobi said. A few minutes went by and nothing happened, but just as he was about to give up, he noticed a small crack forming at the top of the rock.

"YES!, You see that Choji-san, I made a crack in the rock."

"Hahaha, Very good Shinj-kun, very good. It's a good start, keep up with what you are doing and you will shatter the stone in not time."

"Thanks Choji-san, I have to go show Naruto-sensei this." And with that he sped off.

Choji had a surprised look on his face. "So that's one of Naruto's students. Huh, Naruto's got one a wild one on his hands." He started chuckling and walked out of the clearing.

**Training Ground 5**

Shinji came bursting into the clearing just as his two teammates were leaving.

"Guys, where's Naruto-sensei?" he asked.

"He already left for the Hokage Mansion. He told us to meet him there." Replied Natiro.

Shinji pouted. "I bet it's another lame D-rank mission.

"Shall we go see?"Asked Natiro.

And with that, they left the training grounds.

**Outside Hokage Mansion**

"Glad to see you made it back before they left Shinji." Said his sensei.

"Naruto-sensei, look, I cracked the rock." Said the ecstatic young shinobi.

"Impressive, I thought it would have taken you a lot longer." Said Naruto

"I met this cool guy in the woods, he told me the secret, Choji-san is really cool. He said I reminded of some stupid friend of his though, I didn't like that."

Naruto had developed a small twitch on his forehead. It went away quickly however.

"Okay guys, I've already seen the Hokage. We actually have a C-rank mission. This time we will be delivering some important documents to Kumogakure. It's a week long trip at the pace we will be going, a few day in Kumo to rest, and they a week back. In all we will be gone for about half a month, so pack accordingly. We will be leaving at 7:00 tomorrow morning. You guys have the rest of the day off to get your gear together."

Naruto dismissed his team. The only thing that he had not told them was that the documents contained information regarding the Chunin exams. The other villages would be filled in on the specifics, but the genin would all be clueless until the time of the test. Naruto would see how well they did on this mission, and if they proved ready, he would recommend them for the exam.

He chuckled to himself. The training that he was going to do on the trip would be fun. For him at least.

**Okay, that's it. Sorry that its shorter than the last one, but I have to leave something for next time. As always Review. With classes over for the Christmas break I might actually get another chapter out this week. But that's a big might. And to Keeper of the Worlds, (or Words, I forget) I designed this chapter exclusively for you, enjoy. Anywhoo, until next time. **


	9. Chapter 9

**Sorry, Ive had writers block lately. Anyway, here's the new chapter.**

For the first time since they became a team, all three of the genin were speechless. Before them sat their sensei, EARLY! None of them expected him to get there before the rest of them, but there he sat, drinking a cup of tea with the gate guards.

"Hey guys, what took you so long?" He said while smiling.

"Your early.." was all Shinji could muster, shocked as he was.

"Oh, well, my wife had me go and get her some ice cream early this morning, so I thought, what the hell, might as well be early today. Well, now that we are all here, let's get a move on. Izumo, Kotetsu, thanks for the tea."

"No problem." Said a Chunin with a bandana wrapped around his head.

**5 Hours Later**

"Hey Naruto-sensei, when are we going to stop?" asked Shinji

"Hmmm. Well, I guess we can stop now, I need to talk to you guys anyway." He said

"Okay, here's the deal, while we are on this mission I am going to advance your training even more. I have three techniques that have sort of become my signatures, so I want to teach them all to you if you want. The one that we will be working on this trip is the Shadow Clone Jutsu. I think you guys are ready to at least attempt it. The hand sign for the jutsu is quite simple, you take the forefinger and middle finger of each hand, and turn it into a cross, like this," He showed them the hand sign, "and channel your chakra, and this should happen."

An exact clone of their sensei appeared next to the original.

Shinji got excited at this. In fact, he was the only one who got excited.

"No offense Naruto-sensei, but I think I am going to stick with my genjutsu." Said Nartiro.

Rin said nothing, but looked as uninterested as possible.

"Okay, I didn't expect all of you to want to take on your sensei's techniques, but we will be doing this." He reached into his pack and drew out weights. "All three of you are going to wear these leg and arm weights for the duration of this mission. You might need to use chakra for the first few days in order to move at normal speed, but it is all to increase your strength and stamina. As for you Shinji, I'll teach you to do the Shadow Clone Jutsu, as you seem to be the only one interested. Now, put on your weights, eat a snack, and we will be off."

The three genin did just that, each of them grabbing an energy bar from their packs. Shinji had other things on his mind besides food, however. _I'm gonna learn the Shadow Clone Jutsu! YOSH!_

**3 Days Later**

"We'll be stopping here for tonight. Tomorrow we should reach Kumo no problem, what do you think guys?"

He turned to see his students lying face down in the dirt. All three were exhausted, but Natiro was getting the worst of it. Out of the three, physically he was the weakest. Shinji and Rin were faring a little better, but both were worn from the travel with those weights on. Each weight had to be at least 80 pounds apiece. Shinji however noticed how strong he had become prior to being at the academy. If he had been given these weights at the academy, he probably wouldn't have been able to move. The others might not have noticed, but they were definitely improving.

"Okay, a few things you guys need to know before we go into Kumo. The Raikage is a little…. ummm…. abrasive. Just keep your cool, don't talk out, Shinji, and we should get through this without me and him getting into a fight. Like usual." The last part he said in a muffled whisper, so his team barely heard him.

"Shinji!" Naruto said suddenly.

Shinji jumped up to his feet, concerned at why his sensei was suddenly ordering him around.

"Perform the Shadow Clone Jutsu." he said.

Shinji deadpanned. This had been going on for the last three days. Every time they took a break Naruto-sensei would force him to attempt the Shadow Clone Jutsu. Each time he had been unsuccessful. However, he formed the hand sign and channeled chakra. He closed his eyes, waited a few seconds and then looked around. Not a single clone had been formed.

"Keep on trying until dinner is ready, then you can rest." Naruto said.

"And how long will that take Naruto-sensei?" he asked.

"Eh, anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour." He said unconcernedly

Shinji sweatdropped. This man was the devil, He had to be. Not only did he make them wear those weights constantly, but he also had them doing chakra exercises as they ran. And considering they all had to strengthen their muscles with chakra, it was nearly impossible. Shinji went to the edge of the camp site and started to practice. The other three meanwhile were discussing the mission.

"So what is Kumo like Naruto-sensei?" asked Natiro

"Well, first off, Kumo is built on the peak of a mountain, and it's surrounded on all sides by mountains. Because it is at a high elevation its always shrouded in the clouds that cover the peaks. That's where it gets its name."

"Do you know anyone from Kumo?" Natiro asked

"One guy, he trained me for short time when I was younger, he's a little weird, but really strong. He's also the Raikage's brother." Said Naruto

Shinji deadpanned. "Y-y-you were trained by the Raikage's brother?" he asked.

"Like I said it was only for short time, like a few days, but that's none of your concern, get back to training." Naruto said

Shinji began to grumble but got back into position like he was ordered.

**IIIIIIIIII**

30 minutes passed and the stew was ready.

"Shinji! Get over here!" yelled Naruto

Shinji dragged himself to the fire. He was exhausted, but when he smelled the food he immediately perked up.

"Thank you for the meal." Shinji said, and dug in.

"How did you learn to cook so good Naruto-sensei?" asked Natiro in between bites.

"I picked it up. Most Shinobi don't bother since most of their missions involve stealth, so no fire, but ever since the fourth world war things have settled down, so these kinds of missions are more common. One of my comrades taught me, he owns a restaurant in addition to being a shinobi." Explained Naruto.

The four finished eating and washed their dishes in a creek just a few yards from the campsite. Each set up their own sleeping arrangements and drifted off to sleep.

**Next Day**

"Team, Welcome to The Village Hidden in the Clouds!" exclaimed Naruto.

The three genin took in their surroundings. Earlier that morning they had made it to the foot of the mountain range and trekked into the pass leading up the mountain. Naruto then showed them a secret pathway that led to Kumo, which was guarded by a team of Cloud shinobi. Upon reading the documents that Naruto presented, they were allowed to pass, and where guided to the Village's gate. Kumo was just as large as Konoha, but instead of the buildings being on a level ground, they were all on different elevations, sitting atop rocks and plateaus. Clouds drifted in between buildings, and the air was cold.

"Come on, we need to get to the Raikage's Palace." Said their sensei

They walked for 20 minutes, passing through marketplaces and residences. No one even looked twice at a group of foreign shinobi. They reached the palace and were admitted into the building.

"Yo, Yo, Yo, Im the rapping Killer Bee.

Naruto, bro, you got to save me!"

The three genin looked around, and saw at the top of the stairs was a large cloud shinobi with sunglasses and eight swords strapped to his back. He was bouncing back and forth, as if dancing to a rhythm only he could here.

"Sup Uncle Bee, how's it goin?" said Naruto

Bee jumped down to the floor and landed in front of Naruto. The two fist bumped each other.

"My bro's keeping me locked up in this shack,

Im getting so bored, this is so wack! FO SHO!"

Bee then stuck is fist in the air, giving the devil horns, and earning a horrified expression from Shinji.

"Naruto-sensei, who is this weirdo?" he asked

"This is Killer Bee, the Raikage's brother." Naruto said.

Shinji's jaw dropped. Natiro looked surprised, but said nothing. Rin as usual kept her cool, but was surprised as well.

"So Uncle Bee, is your bro in?" asked Naruto

"Fo sho, Fo sho, He's on the top flo." He rapped

"Okay, I am going to deliver these documents, so that you don't cause me any trouble, you three find a place for us to stay, I'll meet back up with you in a few hours." Said their sensei.

Naruto walked up the stairs to the top floor. He knocked on the door and waited until he heard a gruff voice say "Come In"

He walked in the room and saw a very large muscular man with a blond mustache and beard sitting behind a desk. He was missing part of his left arm, but still looked formidable.

"Naruto Uzumaki, of Konohagakure, here to deliver documents regarding this year's Chunin exams."

"Alright, alright, hand them here." Said A

Naruto handed over the scroll, and then stood back.

"Hmm, not bad, not bad, though I'm sorry to say that that Nara isn't a proctor this year, he always comes up with interesting tests."

"He has a team this year, so of course he wouldn't be allowed to devise the tests, though I can assure you, all of our proctors are highly skilled." Said Naruto

"Well, I hope that your teams are ready, because Kumo has one of its best genin team in years. They are the only team we are sending, but I forsee myself being in Konoha in a few months." Said A

"No offense Lord Raikage, but if my team has anything to say about the matter, there won't be many teams passing this year." Boasted Naruto.

"Hmmm, well, may the best team win." Challenged the Raikage.

Naruto smirked, but instead of a comeback, he merely bowed, and flickered out of the office.

The Raikage snorted. "I liked him better as a loudmouth."

**Alright, I know that its really short this time, but I need some help. I need a team for Darui, since I can't come up with anything. Make them strong, but not god like. I promise I'll make the next chapter long to make up for this one. And I apologize for the terrible raps, but I am white as sour cream. Anyhoo, till next time.**


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